SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame softball team will host the Virginia Cavaliers this weekend for a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series at Melissa Cook Stadium, playing Friday at 5 pm, Saturday at 1 pm and wraps up Sunday at noon. This weekend will also be the program’s 14th annual Strikeout Cancer weekend, with the program hosting a variety of events to raise money and awareness for families who have had children diagnosed with cancer.
Surrounding this weekend, the program will host a trivia night and silent auction Saturday evening at the South Bend Cubs training facility. Following the game Sunday, the team is hosting a home run derby for fans. To participate, fans can pay $5 cash for five swings, to $10 for 10 swings if paying by card. All money raised this weekend goes to benefit the Harper Cancer Research Institute and the Samantha Hickey Memorial Foundation. In the past the program has also used this money to help pay for lodging for a family while a child undergoes chemotherapy treatment, sending children on ‘Wish’ trips, purchasing a therapy dog for a child, funding a playroom at Beacon Children’s Hospital, the funds are used directly to impact the children and their families in a real, tangible way.
On the diamond, the Irish are coming off of a 1-2 weekend at North Carolina. After falling in the first game of the series, the Irish responded with a 10-5 win to even the series, before falling in the bottom of the seventh in the series finale. Overall, the Irish are 21-12 on the season and 6-6 in the ACC.
Virginia enters at 24-10 and 7-5 in the league. The last time Virginia competed in an ACC series, the Cavaliers took the series from the 17th-ranked Clemson Tigers in Charlottesville. Virginia enters having won nine of their last 10 games and five consecutive.
All three games this weekend will be live on the ACC Network Extra, with live stats available for each game.